I See Dead People
by EdwardsLily
Summary: Fun in the Public Bathrooms of Forks, WA Involves Em, Jazz, Renesmee, and Bella, a mannequin, and a public restroom. Dare from vampiresquebite. Supposedly a one-shot, but may be longer.


**Not sure how I feel about this. It's... interesting. It was a dare. And it's pretty crazy. Please review it?**

_**I See Dead People**_

_Fun in the Public Bathrooms of Forks, WA_

"Mom?" Renesmee asked me pleadingly.

I skipped a breath, panicking. What did she want? What did she need? I glanced at her frantically, but she sat there calmly, looking up at me with huge eyes. I saw my harried face reflected in them, and took a breath to soothe myself.

"Yes, dearest?" My Renesmee. My baby. She was only two, but she could have passed for an eight-year-old.

She took my hand, her alabaster skin flushing delicately pink. "Is there a bathroom nearby?"

Alice appeared at my side, dramatically smacking her forehead. Several large shopping bags flew up. "Of course!" she cried. "I feel like an idiot. I should have noticed. I should have seen."

Renesmee touched her face calmly. "It's okay, Aunt Alice. I just really have to pee."

"Bella, will you hold the bags?" Alice asked distractedly, scanning the mall for some place to drop them without them being stolen.

I was about to tell Alice to calm down when a blanket of tranquility washed over us and Jasper strolled over calmly. "I've got them, Alice," he said, a strange look of concentration on his face.

"Jasper! Don't you dare!" Alice flung herself at him, and I wondered what she'd seen.

"Let's go," I said to Renesmee, tugging her hand. "They'll still be here when we get back."

It was such a joy to watch her giggle. At first her eyes had gone wide as she watched her aunt and uncle fight, but once she realized they were moving too much too quickly to be seen, once she realized that it was just in jest, she relaxed into me. She followed me to the bathroom as I marveled at the sound of her laugh.

_Alice and Jasper, rolling over the floor. They snarled quietly, and I found it funny._

I squeezed her hand, smiling at her memory. She seemed amused, and that was a good thing. "I wonder what Alice saw Jasper doing to her clothes," I said mildly.

"I would assume that he wanted to rip them to shreds and destroy her credit card." Renesmee smiled angelically. "That wouldn't be very much fun, though. Because then she couldn't shop for me anymore, and I know you and Daddy don't want to buy me too many clothes."

I felt a pang of guilt. True, Edward and I didn't want to spoil her. But when she put it like that… "Your birthday is in two days," I told her. "We'll buy you something fun then. But don't ask Alice, because she'll ruin the fun."

She shrugged, and started walking a little faster. "Mommy, that man is looking at you," she whispered, nodding towards a blonde man who sat on a bench and stared blatantly.

I was about to brush it off; I was used to attracting more attention now. It was almost habit, though it was still embarrassing. But then I realized that I knew him. It didn't take me more than a millisecond to determine who he was, but I still had to look again. I steered Renesmee into a crowd of people for an excuse to slow down and stared out of my peripheral vision.

Mike Newton.

He looked older now, and it was disconcerting. It hardly seemed fair that I should be frozen forever at eighteen, and here he was a twenty-year-old man. He'd chanced, too. His hair was now long enough for him to put into a ponytail, and he had a scraggly beard. I didn't believe it at first, but he was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket and torn jeans. Underneath the Mike smell – the scent of burned toast, Tide detergent and wet paint that I recognized implicitly but knew I'd never smelled before – was a strong scent of alcohol.

What had happened to him? Had Mike really become a drunkard and a motorcyclist?

I didn't believe it.

"Let's go, Renesmee," I murmured, disconcerted by the flash of recognition in his depthless eyes. He looked confused, that was all. Merely confused. He _thought_ he might know me, but he wasn't sure.

So why did I start walking faster, why was I panicking?

Irrational fear for Renesmee. That had to be it. Because I saw how his eyes narrowed when he looked at her, recognizing parts of me in her perfect features. I almost dragged my baby, because I didn't trust a drunken Mike Newton. And the bathroom was only feet away. From what I could tell, it was also empty. Except for a… Hmm. I'd have to look into that. There _was_ someone. A vampire.

I wanted to go in first, to check the situation. Every particle of my being screamed at me to scope out the room and make sure it would be safe for my baby to go in. But I couldn't leave her out here alone, either.

"Follow me," I whispered. I glanced back at her, and saw that she noticed it too. She walked obediently behind me, her heart hammering.

There was no one in there. No breathing, no sign of movement. I thought I caught a familiar scent, but I couldn't place it because it was drowned out intoxicatingly by Victoria's Secret Slice of Heaven Perfume.

"Careful, Renesmee," I cautioned as I let go of her hand. "I think the vampire is gone, but I'm not entirely sure."

My voice, quiet as it was, echoed around the empty bathroom ominously. Renesmee looked at me questioningly, and then hurried into a stall.

"_I see dead people_," a quiet voice hissed.

I screamed. Renesmee's pulse rate spiked, and her she started breathing faster. She stopped moving.

"Renesmee!" I called through the door. I clenched my hands into fists so I wouldn't break through the door. "Renesmee, baby, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." Her little voice shook. "Just a little creeped out.

Alice came running into the bathroom at top speed, followed by Jasper. "Bella!" she cried. "Don't freak –" She was silenced as Jasper placed an urgent kiss on her mouth.

I wanted to rip them apart. They both knew what was happening.

"_I see _LOTS_ of dead people,_" the voice said.

"Mom!" Renesmee shrieked, fumbling with the sliding latch of the stall door. "Mom!"

I ripped the door from its hinges, ignoring the lusty couple beside me, trying not to feel the waves of attraction rolling off Jasper. Renesmee stood right there, frozen with terror. Behind her was a mammoth figure, dressed in purple and green, with a pale painted face. He wore a hat with bells, and someone had painted triangles under his eyes like he was some sort of sick mime.

"_You're a dead person,_" he said, grinning nightmarishly at me.

I hadn't had a nightmare in two years, but I felt like I was in one now. Who stood in empty bathrooms, facing a mammoth mannequin and surrounded by their lip-locked in-laws? I did what my body told me, and snagged Renesmee around the waist, pulling her out of the way.

"_Angry dead person_." The mannequin grinned again, and then started moving towards me jerkily

My mind, instead of going numb, was strangely clear. "Renesmee," I said quietly, not caring about Mike anymore. "Go out into the main part of the mall. Stick to a crowd of people, and don't let yourself be visible."

She stuck out her bottom lip. "I'm staying here." She touched my face, and I flinched away. I was too angry, too out of control to be so close to her. She was so delicate, so breakable.

Insistent, she pushed her hand back to my face and I felt longing to stay, fear of leaving me here. I took a deep, trembling breath. "Stain in the corner, then."

My eyes didn't leave the mannequin as Renesmee retreated into the corner, and I sank into a crouch. He moved with frightening agility and jerkiness. You could almost see the puppet strings that moved him, though they weren't there. Instead, he kept smiling and walking forward.

"_Dead… people…_"

Then Jasper broke away from Alice, and I thought he was choking, gasping for air. I realized he was actually bent double laughing, and Alice started beating him over the head.

"Sorry, Em," Jasper chuckled.

I felt giddy with humor, though I didn't think it was funny. I growled. Em?

The mannequin ripped off his face, and Emmett smiled at me from under the mask. "Did you see her face, Jazz? I thought she was going to kill me."

Jasper fell onto the floor, twitching.

"Uncle Emmett?" Renesmee asked, innocently confused.

I lunged towards Emmett, furious that he would make me so concerned, so stressed, for no reason. "That. Wasn't. Funny. You. Monster!"

He pinned me to the ground easily, and sat on my torso while I struggled to get back up. I was growling and snapping, and Renesmee was starting to giggle.

When I took a breath, my throat burst into flames. I pushed Emmett off me, and looked up to see two girls standing in the doorway of the bathroom. They stared back at me wide-eyed, and one of them dropped her purse with a loud clatter. We all sprang to our feet and hurried out of the bathroom. And ran right into Mike Newton.

**It could be a cliffie, could be an ending. What do you think? It was SUPPOSED to be a one-shot.**


End file.
